The Chicks’ Natalie Maines Says She’d ‘Make Out’ With George W. Bush Compared to Trump
Natalie Maines touched off one of the biggest controversies in country music history when she famously criticized then-President George W. Bush during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Irag in 2003, but the Chicks singer says she'd "make out" with the former president now, compared to currently sitting President Donald Trump.
The Chicks appeared on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday night (July 21) to promote their new album, Gaslighter, and at one point during the interview, host Andy Cohen asked their opinion of the backlash Ellen DeGeneres faced after she was pictured seated next to Bush at a football game in 2019.
"You know, I joke that today I might actually make out with George Bush," Maines replied with a laugh.
The trio, who were then known as the Dixie Chicks, suffered an enormous career backlash after comments Maines made on stage in London on March 10, 2003.
"Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all,” the singer told the audience. “We do not want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
The fallout from those remarks changed the trio's career forever, but Maines tells Cohen that given her current view of Trump's presidency, she's revised certain aspects of her opinion about Bush.
"I don't rethink that I didn't want to go to war and that 'weapons of mass destruction' were a lie, but, yes, it would be a huge love fest if I saw George Bush right now because of where we're at with this current president," she states.
The Chicks recently dropped the "Dixie" from their name in response to the widespread social unrest that's swept America after the deaths of George Floyd and other unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police across the country.
Released on July 17, Gaslighter marks the Chicks' first new studio album since Taking the Long Way in 2006. The trio of Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire initially announced the release of Gaslighter for May 1 but pushed the album release back in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Chicks had planned to tour arenas in 2020, before the pandemic put the brakes on major tours across the board.
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